Demonic possession is a horror flick evergreen, a Gothic staple since the game-changing The Exorcist hit screens in 1973. But the bar was set pretty high once Linda Blair spewed out her pea-green vomit and spun her head like a swivel chair.
Here, a teenage girl named Nell (an appropriately enigmatic Ashley Bell) does some back-bending acrobatics when reputedly under the devil's spell and is similarly sick to her stomach, to put it mildly. It's off-putting, but it's nothing new.
The buildup to the devilish acts is potent, however, in this inspired premise. A slickly charismatic evangelical preacher, Cotton Marcus (convincingly played by Patrick Fabian), has had an attack of conscience over his ability to con believers.
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